United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Babette (Betty) Isner (née Lutz, 1895-1949) was born in Nuremberg and Justin Isner (1889-approximately 1942) was born in Hüttenbach. Their children Bella and Ruth were born in Nuremberg in 1928 and 1929. The Isner family boarded the MS St. Louis in May 1939 for Cuba but was forced to return to Europe with most of the other passengers. They disembarked at Boulogne and were originally directed to Poitiers but were settled in the farming town of Loudun instead. In 1942 the family was arrested and transferred to the internment camp at Poitiers. Justin Isner was deported to Drancy and eventually perished at Auschwitz, but Babette, Bella, and Ruth returned to Loudun. They were arrested again in 1944 and sent to Drancy but were again released and returned to Loudun. They immigrated to the United States in 1947.
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The Babette and Justin Isner letter is arranged as a single series: I. Babette and Justin Isner letter, June 23, 1939
The Babette and Justin Isner letter was written by a Nuremberg couple in Boulogne and describes their unsuccessful attempt to immigrate to Cuba via the MS St. Louis and their plans to find refuge in France.
Babette and Justin Isner letter